"Baobei" is a study of memory as it’s passed down from mother to daughter in the chinese lore, “moon lady”, and how memories break down. Starting from the grandmother, it retells itself through generations until “remember to tie your hair up so you can see the stars” becomes, “one day, a woman stayed for so long in the moon that no one remembered her name— not even the sky”. how do you remember stories and how do you want to remember them?
"Lore" by Nancy Huang
Visuals by Dyan Jong
Music + Narration by Lucy Yao
Armour of Shells
"Use your arms as if they aren’t your own.
Use them as wings that can pick you up and put you somewhere new.
Use them like tentacles and feel everything you can.
Feel the details with all of your senses.
Feel them when they’re specific and clear and keep feeling them until they’ve become blurry and enigmatic and you feel like you’ve hit a wall.
Use your arms and wings and tentacles until you’ve hit a wall.
Write a story for yourself.
Break down that story and then convince yourself it happened differently.
Think about your memories and then change them.
Change your memories.
Change the order of your memories.
Turn them inside out.
Until your brain doesn’t remember what it’s doing.
Until everything is nonsensical.
And when you’re done, move with these memories.
Try to move with the old memories until you have to move with the new ones.
Where are you now?"
Featuring "New Ocean” - an Original Score by Lucy Yao
Violin by Madeline Hocking
Piano Lucy Yao
Mixed and Mastered by Lucy Yao
Commissioned by The Joffrey Ballet School NYC Jazz & Contemporary Trainee Program
Anywhere You Are is a multimedia piece inspired by the desire to create connection when in person gatherings remain impossible, even if just for the moment. Structured as a loose improvisatory piece, “Anywhere You Are” is an immersive guided experience that draws inspiration from meditative practices, prompting viewers to reflect anonymously on their experience during quarantine.
Premiere- 2020 NYU ITP Un-Conference
Live visuals - Aaron Santiago
Live music improvisation - Lucy Yao
Live narrator - Bea Antonie Martino
Live audience - Anyone, Anywhere, Online
Just Ask Him (2020) is a romantic LGBT short film about an out high school kid gathering the courage to ask his soccer jock crush to a dance.
Directed by Brian Tognotti
Music by Trey Makler
Piano + Improvisation by Lucy Yao
“Threshold” (2018) commissioned for Lucy Yao, written by Trey Makler
Dance by Moscelyne ParkeHarrison + Barry Gans
Piano- Lucy Yao